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From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS
XXV. ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND, 1603-1715 A.D.
» Contents of this Chapter
The Divine Right of Kings * The Absolutism of Louis XIV, 1661-1715 A.D. * France under Louis XIV * The Wars of Louis XIV * The Absolutism of the Stuarts, 1603-1642 A.D. * Oliver Cromwell and the Civil War, 1642-1649 A.D. * The Commonwealth and the Protectorate, 1649-1660 A.D. * The Restoration and the "Glorious Revolution," 1660-1689 A.D. * England in the Seventeenth Century
THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS
ABSOLUTISM
Most European nations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries accepted the principle of absolutism in government. Absolutism was as popular then as democracy is to-day. The rulers of France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Scandinavia, and other countries, having triumphed over the feudal nobles, proceeded to revive the autocratic traditions of imperial Rome. Like Diocletian, Constantine, and later emperors, they posed as absolute sovereigns, who held their power, not from the choice or consent of their subjects, but from God.
DIVINITY OF KINGS
Royal absolutism formed a natural development of the old belief in the divinity of kings. Many primitive peoples regard their headmen and chiefs as holy and give to them the control of peace and war, of life and death. Oriental rulers in antiquity bore a sacred character. Even in the lifetime of an Egyptian Pharaoh temples were erected to him and offerings were made to his sacred majesty. The Hebrew monarch was the Lord's anointed, and his person was holy. The Hellenistic kings of the East and the Roman emperors received divine honors from their adoring subjects. An element of sanctity also attached to medieval sovereigns, who, at their coronation, were anointed with a magic oil, girt with a sacred sword, and given a supernatural banner. Even Shakespeare could speak of the divinity which "doth hedge a king." [2]
[2] Hamlet, iv, Y,123.
"Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm off from an anointed king; The breath of worldly men cannot depose The deputy elected by the Lord." [3]
[3] King Richard the Second, in, ii, 54-57.
THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents
url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp
Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy
